by Pastor Jeff Logan.
Every Thursday for the past five years, I’ve gone out and spent a few hours with the homeless on the streets and in the shelters of Portland; not a savoir, just a humble guest in their house. It’s winter, so the desperation is accelerated, with the deaths from overdose, or the occasional person who tries to sleep outside and loses some toes, or this year an entire foot, to frostbite. There are the stories of unjust incarcerations, of broken families and forgotten children, of hospitalizations for everything from COPD to heart attacks, the drug sales, the petty theft, the poorly managed self-medication for untreated mental illness and the stress of too much need in too little space, the self-sabotage, the rage, and the shame.
But in the middle of all this, there are moments where the face of God is as startlingly real as an August sunrise. On this Thursday, I met a new person named M, someone I didn’t know who needed a coat. I went to my car and got him one, and as I approached, his face lit up with a mixture of gratitude and amazement that I’d even come back. And he said “When I get on my feet, I’m going to pay you back for this." And I said, “Just pay it forward.” “Yeah, Pastor, yeah I’ll do that.” Small miracles in dark places.
And then there was J, a man I knew well, fresh out of jail and in need of a tent and a sleeping bag. I had them for him, but another man had been robbed and was in desperate need of a sleeping bag so that he could get his cat, who usually rides on his shoulder, back from someone he didn’t trust. I told J that I had his sleeping bag but that there was an emergency and could he wait a week. He said, “No, Pastor, if there’s an emergency, I can wait. I know what that’s like.” The amazing generosity of someone with almost nothing.
Mysterious ways indeed.
Pastor Jeff Logan was ordained by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine in 2015. He has been working as a co-pastor with Grace-Street Ministry since his ordination, and was hired as the new Executive Director in November of 2018. For more information on Grace-Street Ministry, please visit our webpage, gracestreetministry.blogspot.com, or contact Jeff directly by email at gracestreetministry@gmail.com. Donations of Dunkin' Donuts cards, socks, or money are always gratefully received.
